I’ve been writing songs about the people in my life for years. The first song I wrote was about Daniel Radcliffe (who was a big part of my life at the time), and the next one was about a family friend, and the third was about the boy at my school who wore berets. I’ve never really thought about what it would be like to be on the other end of this interaction. I can imagine that starring in one of my songs isn’t a very positive experience, seeing as how lately all of the songs I write about other people have an underlying message that goes something like this:

“How DARE you break my heart, you evil toad! Also, please call me.”

Fortunately, not all songwriters write songs purely for revenge like I do. Recently, my friend Grant Elgaard wrote a song inspired by the blog post I wrote about crying, called Brave Enough to Cry. I met Grant last year in a singer/songwriter course at Langara… we were the two students who had to take handfuls of pills during class break (not for the same reasons, though there was some talk about swapping pills for fun at one point). Grant’s songs are my favourite kind: sometimes he’s poking fun, sometimes he’s solemn, but his songs are always one hundred percent honest. When I first heard Brave Enough to Cry, I was so thrilled by it that I asked him to record it for me. I mean, it’s a song about me, the super sensitive little bird-lady, with the word BRAVE in the title! We ended up recording the song together in my living room this week, and I even threw in some surprise harmonies at the end (sorry for ruining the surprise). I feel so honoured to be the inspiration behind Grant’s wonderful song. After you check out the song Brave Enough to Cry feat. Sarah Jickling, I highly recommend you listen to Grant’s song I’m an Old Man Now, which will make you laugh whether you are an old man or not.

Hi. I'm sarah.

photo by Jordyn Taylor Robbins

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